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By now, I'm sure you have heard from various sources that the White House plans to balance the federal budget by eliminating several agencies, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

As I write, Congress is finalizing a budget for 2017, which includes a significant increase for NEH. However, we do anticipate that the President's budget proposal for 2018 will include proposals to defund these three agencies, among others.

For the past 13 years, I have had the esteemed pleasure to serve the residents and businesses of the Village of Bluffton in the role as Village Administrator.

In that time, I had the great fortune of working with some incredibly dedicated public servants that take great pride in the quality services that they provide to this community. They truly are wonderful people that care about this community and I will forever cherish the time that I had with them and the good that we accomplished for the community.

Imagine there was a way to encouraging tourists to travel directly through Bluffton, and having them go by our restaurants and services. Tourists and travelers - whether they are daytrippers or coming from a long-distance - bring economic growth and vitality. Who wouldn't encourage that kind of activity in the village we are so proud of, especially if it had the potential to benefit our community?

Now that it is publicly known that Jim Kinn will be retiring, all of us at Stratton Auto Sales and Bluffton Auto Repair Center would like to wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. We want to thank him for the year and a half that he has been with us in opening the new repair shop.

We look forward to working with the public as we remain open and operational. Mr. Kinn has helped train the person that will be taking over the repair shop for him and we have all the confidence in the world in our new manager.

I understand you are considering the “heartbeat bill” which would ban abortions in the State of Ohio after 6-8 weeks, or when an embryo’s heartbeat can be detected.

I have learned that an embryo’s heartbeat can be heard only with ultrasound equipment or a fetal Doppler, both available from an obstetrician. A pregnant woman can use a stethoscope, but only much later (18-20 weeks) in a pregnancy.

We want to thank everyone involved with the "Holly Follies." We would like to thank the people selling tickets at the door, the people backstage, all of the performers, Greg Denecker, custodians and especially the audience.

Everyone gave up family time to put this show together. It was a great success! Thanks again everyone.